a blog about everything related to youth raising French angora rabbits

Black Diamond Kits

Sage's Kits, Nine Weeks Old

Thursday, February 19, 2015

How To Choose a Good French Angora Rabbit

When you decide to buy a French angora rabbit, there are several factors to keep in mind to help you choose the best rabbit for you.

First, when you go to buy your rabbit, you always want to make sure the rabbitry is clean. You want to make sure the rabbits are well-groomed and that their cages are clean. Also, you want to make sure that their shelter--barn, garage, or shed--is clean. (Cleanliness helps prevent disease.)

If you are looking to buy a show-quality rabbit, these are some of the things you may want to do. After you have gone to the rabbitry and seen that everything is clean, you will want to judge the rabbit for yourself. (4-H is good for learning how to judge rabbits.) Ask the breeder if the rabbit has been shown and whether it has won any legs. You may also ask whether the parents have been shown and whether they have won any legs. For a show quality rabbit, you need a rabbit with a good body. Wool is supposed to be 55% of the points for French angoras, but French angoras have been bred so much for their wool, that some bodies just aren't good. So judges tend to consider the body more than the wool. But wool is important, too. Good wool has good density, crimp, texture, uniform length, and an appropriate amount of guard hair. Finally, you will want your rabbit to have at least a four-generation pedigree chart.

Now, if you want a wool quality rabbit, you don't need to consider the body type. Indeed, a wool quality rabbit probably won't have a good show body-it will be long in the shoulders or have poor hindquarters. It may have a disqualification (DQ), such as a splay leg, split penis, discolored nails, broken ears, etc. Many wool-quality rabbits have excellent bodies, but have some other DQ like an unshowable color that you can't fool the judge with, like charlies or ermines. (Not that you or we would even try fooling the judge.)

A pet quality rabbit would most likely have a bad body or poor wool. But you always want to make sure that the bunny is a nice bunny and used to being handled.

If you have any questions about choosing a bunny, please post a comment or send us an email!

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If you are interested in a rabbit or if you have questions, drop us a line at blackdiamondbunnies@gmail.com.

Please, please, please email us with questions, or post them on the blog. We really want to be sure our rabbits are going to good homes with responsible owners ready to care for them. While all of our customers thus far have been very nice people who we have every confidence are providing the best of care for their rabbits, we have had some concerns with individuals who have expressed interest in our rabbits. If we are not completely comfortable with an individual, we will not sell you a rabbit. That's just the way it is. One excellent way for us to become comfortable with you and with your level of preparation is for you to ask questions. What we really do not want to see is someone who emails and says, "I'm ready for my rabbit now. When can I come by?"

If you wish to speak with us in person, we'll be happy to give you a call, or provide our phone number through an email. We're sorry, but because this is the Internet, and because we have young women involved, we can't post our phone number or physical address online. We live about 20 minutes north of the 395/Interstate 80 junction in Reno.

1970's Soviet Propaganda Poster, Rabbit Style

This photo graced the top of the blog for several months. Why do I call it a Soviet propaganda poster? Because it looks just like one. (I got my degree in Russian in 1987. I got to see a whole lot of Soviet propaganda posters in the course of my studies.) Anyway, it's classic Soviet propaganda. There is almost always a lighter individual, centered and higher than the darker individuals who are flanking and lower. The lighter individual looks up and to the side, into the light. The sun's rays smile down, indicating a bright future. We could never have gotten this pose in a million years if we'd been trying.